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Business Blogs...The Deep End of the Pool

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: The blogosphere is a tremendous opportunity for executives at every level to deal 1:1 and 1:many with customers, prospects and other interested parties. It is not just another PR tool. It is a management tool for communicating with people. But you need to know the pros, cons of the blogosphere before you jump into the deep end....

Business Blogs...The Deep End of the Pool

While we find the overwhelming enthusiasm of professional blogs and its dramatic value as a strategic public relations tool interesting, it is not a pool we have chosen to jump into yet. And it is one we counsel clients to lurk around before determining if that it is something they want to enter for the long term rather than simply try and abandon.

Perhaps it is because we know the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet, the pros and cons of participation as well as the obstacles and opportunities.

Blogs began to emerge a few years ago as an on-line personal diary (open – allowing comments or closed – locking out inputs). The blogosphere then evolved to one of social or like interest destinations. Recently it has become the up-to-the-minute “straight scoop” news location and business/political influence destination.

It has been cited as the place that can help make or break a company, product or political candidate.

Yet the overwhelming, ultra-positive blog noise for the movie Snakes in the Plane didn’t produce blockbuster earnings on its opening weekend (and after). Some view this as proof that the personal aspect of the blogosphere is just that…personal.

Political blogs that seemed to be effective in the 2004 elections have been taken over by political action groups and parties using them as a front for their agendas. As a result, depending upon your leaning, the blogs are cited as authorities, bogus, deceitful or simply ignored.

Blogs are simply a cog in the total revolution of the Internet.

Our first encounter with the Net in the ‘80s was innocent enough.

A group of young people in San Diego running around SDU and the research center in a beat-up Bug setting folks up on something called ARPANET.

It was a kick working with them to set up third leg of the geekie Net. Soon Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cropped up across the country, around the globe.

In the ‘90’s folks with the ink still drying on their MBAs promised a new global opportunity…the Web. Money flowed to stores in the cloud.

Promises of riches were made.

Deaths came slowly…painfully…expensively.

The third remake is the scariest of all because broadband is becoming the coin of the realm.

People want to be connected.

People want to be organized.

People want to be entertained.

People want to be empowered.

And we’re delivering.

New Generation
Web 2.0 which a new generation of public relations folks has grown up with seems to present a tremendous opportunity for professionals. New avenues have opened up to us like YouTube, MySpace, audio/video podcasting and most of all the wonder that many believe PR should “own” – blogging.

Blog – a great way for a company and its management to communicate directly 1:1 with consumers.

The shortcoming is that many professionals don’t understand that unlike the Web 1.0 era, Web.20 is not one to many publishing. Instead it is participatory publishing and is more than the sum of the whole. The area is far from static. It is addictive and constantly evolving toward its own individualized end.

Leading this evolutionary revolution is DIY entertainment. Digital content is developing a whole new generation of digital do-it-yourselfers who are taking advantage of a new series of content creation tools that add functionality in an easy to use incremental fashion much as Yahoo and Google add simple functions to the web.

Big product roll-outs are giving way to interactive customer relationships. There are no longer high priests, enthusiasts, hobbyists and people with lots of time on their hands. The new evolution is inclusive giving regular people the tools they need to exchange content and ideas.

What is becoming apparent is that we are entering Renaissance 2.0 that is not a bandwagon rolling hell-bent for somewhere. It is a new phase of community wide new creativity that management and public relations people have to learn how to deal with, work within.

Before you start your blog or encourage management to begin their blog perhaps you should look closely at the Internet your/their postings will run on.

That’s right it isn’t a direct conduit from one business person to one consumer. It is one blog posted that is open literally to the world! More precisely it is open to every individual who has access to the Internet. As of January, 2006 that was 1.081 million people around the globe.

While the U.S. has the largest total number about 18.5% or roughly 198 million, the country is far from alone regarding its internet access. In fact the country is only number 12 in its high speed broadband connectivity per 100 inhabitants well behind Iceland and Korea.

Why is broadband so important?

Platform First
According to most research, broadband connectivity is “almost” a requirement for individuals who initiate and maintain a blog.

For that reason we focus on high speed broadband connectivity which despite popular belief among most of the digitally connected is not everywhere.

To look at the numbers one could easily believe that “everyone” is blogging but you and if you don’t get on-board you will be left behind. After all, Technorati tracks more than 50 million blogs worldwide and there are reports that the blogosphere is doubling every six months. On the average, one new blog is born every second.

This is almost as impressive as the growth of email addresses over the past 10 years and the appearance of new web sites over the past five years.

Do these new bloggers immediately begin drilling down into, expanding and enhancing their blogs? No. It is only one online activity they add to their growing arsenal of Internet activities. Most of their time is spent researching, buying stuff, entering contests, playing online games, listening to Internet radio and other activities.

Even when people are online an extremely small percentage of their time is devoted to developing, enhancing or updating their blogs. Most of their time is spent on other content activities.

Contrary to what a few digiteria would like you to believe, InsightExpress found in a study that heavy Internet users would most miss:
- TV – 28%
- Web sites – 24%
- Email – 23%
- Radio – 7%
- Newspapers – 6%
- Online chat rooms/message boards – 6%

Only 1% would miss blogs if they disappeared tomorrow. Roughly translated it means while blogs are nice, they do not represent a major source of information, news or personal/professional growth for people.

It likewise does not represent a major public relations opportunity for organizations and products especially when the same InsightExpress study found that 38% of the respondents disliked firms seeding a blog with product/service messages.

However, there is less of a reluctance of such messages in online chat rooms, message boards and specialized use lists when the information is germane to the subject.

Sound Outreach
All of this is not to say that there is no place for blogs in the corporate communications mix.

But executives have to understand and be prepared for the fact that it is true two-way communications and both 1:1 and 1:many communications.

It is 1:1 because you or the executive is talking directly to and interacting with one person. It is 1:many because every Internet user in the world has the potential for listening in and entering into the conversation.

Already we have seen negative results:
- A 14-year-old girl using MySpace shut down her blog because of the growing number of harassing, sexual and personal threat messages she was receiving
- The Washington Post’s ombudsperson’s site was shut down after similar threats and questionable statements were posted
- The LA Times had a similar experience
- Dell’s PR group encountered hostilities when they launched the firm’s “customer friendly” blog only to be hit by aggressive and often demeaning comments from people regarding the firm’s notebook battery fire problems

The blogosphere did not begin for marketing, management or public relations purposes. It appeared and evolved as a part of the new and evolving personal expression and social media environment.

Personal Community
Technorati and Pew Internet (www.pewinternet.org) studied blogging and bloggers and arrived at surprisingly similar results – blogs are personal, self and “community”-driven.

Sanctioned or not company’s have blogs already. Microsoft, IBM, HP, General Motors, Ford, Boeing and other firms large and small have members of their staffs officially and unofficially carrying out their personal business-centric blogs.

Should senior management launch their blogs?

Possibly.

Should PR people on behalf of the company?

Probably…NOT!

It’s not a place to repurpose news releases. It’s not a place to promote “party line.”

Before management jumps in they should lurk on the edges of the blogosphere. They should study, follow blogs in their business, even those by individuals from his/her own firm just to get an understanding of the flow, tenor, exchange.

As they become more comfortable in the new open environment they have to decide for themselves when response, additions or silence is used. It may be a 1:1 “conversation but you have to keep in mind that hundreds, if not thousands, of people could be sitting on the sideline just watching/waiting for the responses.

Before the individual takes his/her blog live, they have to have a clear understanding that even though the blog may only need inputs once or twice a week, it is not something that can be started and then simply abandon. The executive needs to have a long-term view of what the blog will accomplish for him/herself and for the company.

They have to approach their blogging effort with the idea that their efforts will help personalize the company with people in the blogosphere. It isn’t simply about brand building it is about reputation building.

That means at times the company, the product, the individual has to take lumps and admit shortcomings and hopefully highlight strengths and customer concern…that’s what real people do!!!

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